warning with nested calls to functions returning by reference

Bug #33558

Submitted:

2005-07-03 23:04 UTC

Modified:

2005-08-15 12:47 UTC

Votes:	12
Avg. Score:	4.9 ± 0.3
Reproduced:	10 of 10 (100.0%)
Same Version:	8 (80.0%)
Same OS:	6 (60.0%)

From:

l dot alberton at quipo dot it

Assigned:

derick (profile)

Status:

Closed

Package:

Scripting Engine problem

PHP Version:

4.4.0RC1

OS:

Private report:

CVE-ID:

None

[2005-07-03 23:04 UTC] l dot alberton at quipo dot it

Description:
------------
When a function which returns a reference calls another function which returns a reference, the engine complains because the outer function does not return a variable reference.


It happens with PHP4.4.0RC2 too.

Reproduce code:
---------------
<?php
function & foo() {
    $var = 'a';
    return $var;
}

function & bar() {
    return foo();
}

$a =& bar();
?>

Expected result:
----------------
no NOTICEs

Actual result:
--------------
Notice: Only variable references should be returned by reference in test_ref.php on line 8

Patches

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[2005-07-03 23:08 UTC] derick@php.net

Thank you for taking the time to write to us, but this is not
a bug. Please double-check the documentation available at
http://www.php.net/manual/ and the instructions on how to report
a bug at http://bugs.php.net/how-to-report.php

You can only return variable by reference, not function\'s results. (This never worked correctly before anyway, now you just get a nice notice about it so that you can fix your code).

[2005-07-03 23:56 UTC] l dot alberton at quipo dot it

>You can only return variable by reference, not function's results.

even if the function result *is* a reference?


> (This never worked correctly before anyway, now you just get a nice
> notice about it so that you can fix your code).

the fact that it never worked doesn't mean it is not a bug... quite frankly I don't see any reason why it's my code that need fixing and not the engine itself.
I may be stubborn, but I'm not convinced at all. I still think that I'm not doing anything wrong here, and if it doesn't work it's because of an engine limitation, not because of a fault of my code.

[2005-08-15 12:47 UTC] derick@php.net

This bug has been fixed in CVS.

Snapshots of the sources are packaged every three hours; this change
will be in the next snapshot. You can grab the snapshot at
http://snaps.php.net/.
 
Thank you for the report, and for helping us make PHP better.